Welcome back to ‘Your Choice’ – TC&A’s weekly leadership coaching newsletter. We know communication is a top challenge in the workplace, we’ve heard it from over 600 leaders throughout our decades of coaching.

We also know, when following a blueprint or roadmap with your conversations, you will experience:

greater trust being built in your work relationships

clearer boundaries with co-workers

increased ability to manage chaos when it arises or even avoid it all together!

Join us below as you learn this proven roadmap to successful conversations– we wrote it and we have practiced it daily with our clients, in our work and lives over the last decade of being in business.

“To get to the next level of greatness depends on the quality of our culture,

which depends on the quality of our relationships,

which depends on the quality of our conversations.

Everything happens through conversations!”

~ Conversational Intelligence

Welcome back to, ‘Your Choice’ where Tess and I offer free weekly leadership coaching and development right into your inbox, every Monday morning. We are grateful to be connected. 

As we continue to focus on leveling up our conversational skills through raising our conversational intelligence (C-IQ), we know that building trust is the cornerstone to having good outcomes within every conversation. We practice this daily as leadership coaches. Our clients come to us with their greatest conversational challenges and their most exciting successes when leading others with their communication. When trust is established, we have the ability to flow in and thru all styles of conversations and trust that our good intentions will lead to good outcomes. The conversations are definitely not always easy, yet, they are built from a mutual respect and commitment to trust so we can indeed, trust the outcomes. 

“As we each entered this world, we came forth with our own unique ENERGY. Where we place our energy and how we use our energy is a CHOICE we have the opportunity to make every day.” 

– TC&A

In week 1, we mentioned, our ENERGY is the one thing we can influence, choose, connect to and even, regulate. As readers of “Your Choice,” you know well that your energy is at the core of who you are, how you communicate, how you make decisions and how you choose to create meaning and impact in the world. Put simply, but not lightly: 

Your energy matters and influences the direction of your life.

Your energy is felt, received and responded to by others, as well. While you are not responsible for how others feel, receive or respond to your energy, it is the conscious choice as a leader, to guide, lead and manage your energy toward the best of outcomes for your own self and everyone you work and live with.

Every day, you utilize your ENERGY. You, may or may not be aware of your utilization of your ENERGY within the work you do or the life you are living. You may simply TRUST that your ENERGY will show up for you, guide you, lead you.

For several years now, Tess and I have been talking about ENERGY within our one-on-one coaching, team building, seminars and on our YouTube channel. We are aware of the affects both positive or negative energy has on individuals, teams and leadership within the workplace.

So, “why” do we communicate “it’s so important to pay attention to your energy?” Our answer, “it is the one thing we can influence, choose, connect to and even, regulate.”

With a greater knowledge about what is going on inside of you regarding your energy, you can experience a deeper connection to managing your own energy in a healthy and positive way.

“TRUST is the key to MOTIVATING yourself, others, your team or organization. It is the one thing that will INSPIRE yourself to lead with your INTEGRITY.”

– Tess Cox & Chelsea Cox Gillman

 Within the absence of TRUST, fear takes hold. Fear will create anxiety, distress and panic. When you find yourself in fear…pause and take a deep breath. And, while you are pausing and taking a deep breath – give yourself space to return to TRUST within yourself.

What is the ONE Thing you need to focus on in this New 2025 Year? Is there ONE Thing? You may have several things that you want to place your focus in this New 2025 Year of living, working, playing and being in relationship with others.

Within the Leadership Coaching Journey, there are no right or wrong answers. It’s possible, your ONE Thing is to work towards a promotion, more financial security, better health mentally, physically and spiritually, buying a home or fostering more meaningful relationships. And, it is probable, there are other ONE thing thoughts you would like to put your focus.

The calendar is counting down as we gather with family, friends and co-workers during this Holiday Season. Whether you’re traveling to see family, celebrating with friends and enjoying Holiday parties with co-workers - we know there are many different story lines, personality preferences, diverse ways of seeing and understanding, and varying thoughts, views and opinions when interacting with others.

Our Leadership Coaching support is more than wishing you, “Good Luck,” as you engage and navigate your conversations - Our Leadership Coaching reminder is:

 “You ALWAYS have the POWER to DECIDE

how you want to lead yourself when interacting with others.”

Every day you have choices that influence and impact your life experiences and outcomes at work. Who you CHOOSE to be and what you CHOOSE to do affects both your personal and professional life.

As you know, we are always here to support you and want the best for you! We are excited to share our holiday gift to you this year as we’ve created our ‘Your Daily Choices’ December Calendar.

Every day you have choices that influence and impact your life experiences and outcomes at work. Who you CHOOSE to be and what you CHOOSE to do affects both your personal and professional life.

As you know, we are always here to support you and want the best for you! We are excited to share our holiday gift to you this year as we’ve created our ‘Your Daily Choices’ December Calendar.

Every day, we have a choice for gratitude to exist and live within us.

Gratitude is always available and forever EVOLVING.

 When being responsible for our own Gratitude, we can begin from within – Our Inner Gratitude and the words we speak to ourselves influences our outcomes.

When being responsible within every interaction, our foundation of Conversational Gratitude influences our experiences – The function of our brain activity inspires all of our interactions with others.

When being responsible for our daily practices and strategies – Our Attitude of Gratitude will multiply our happiness when living and working with others.

 May we ALL enjoy our Holiday’s with the tools and resources we have available to us and may we stay in the mindset of GRATITUDE.

“Combining an attitude of gratitude with what is important to you internally and externally will guide your actions both personally and professionally.”

-The Engagement Blueprint

As we learned from the TC&A newsletter in week 1 about Inner Gratitude and week 2 about Conversational Gratitude. We trust you are seeing how gratitude influences your inner words that you speak to yourself and how conversational gratitude influences each part of your brain when interacting and connecting with others. 

Your inner being and your brain are meant to work together, in order to create genuine and transparent interactions with those you care about, those you engage and work with and those you barely know – Your starting place of gratitude influences everyone and everything around you.

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said,

 people will forget what you did, 

but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

-Maya Angelou

The quote above by Maya Angelou is one of our favorite quotes at TC&A. It is a mindset that Chelsea and I seek to lead our own selves, as we coach and lead our clients.

The ability to raise our own consciousness and mindfulness that everything we communicate has the power to positively or negatively “trigger” physical and emotional changes within our brains and our bodies – truly, one of the most important things we can learn when building relationships through our conversations and communication.

One of my mentors through learning, podcasts and her book, “Conversational Intelligence – How Great Leaders BUILD TRUST and Get Extraordinary Results” by Judith E. Glaser supports the neuroscience within conversations. The foundation of understanding how our five brains are hardwired for supporting our ability to interact with others impacts our outcomes in a positive or negative way. 

“Your Internal Words Shape WHO You Are.”

– Tess Cox

 Welcome to our TC&A November Newsletter.

As we embrace a new month and enter into the celebration season of Thanksgiving and the Holidays, I (Tess) am going to begin by taking us on an inner journey of gratitude. 

It’s probable that my age has something to do with my thought process and desire to write about an inner journey of gratitude. I’ve learned over my lifetime, that the way I choose to speak to myself inwardly, shapes and forms my outcomes. I have found that my internal dialogue about myself and who I am … MATTERS. 

“A confident leader is one who is able to celebrate the wins of others,

compete with good intent, have courageous dialogue to enhance relationships

and stay resilient during challenging times.”

– Tess Cox, The Leadership Blueprint

As the month of October newsletters come to a close, we turn our focus towards CONFIDENCE. We are reminded that Confidence is a natural byproduct of living well within our Character, Competency, Consistency & Creativity.

Think about the foundation of your Character or the way you lead yourself with your Competency, Consistency and Creating positive relationships. Where might you feel the most confident within one of these four C’s?